Butter is a common food fat product that has been used throughout the world for centuries as an ingredient of other foods or as a condiment. Today, butter is commonly made on an industrial scale with apparatus suitable for handling tens, hundreds, or more gallons of cream or milk. In a day before commercial creameries, butter was commonly made in the home using mechanical churns that, typically, were manually operated. As commercial creameries became prevalent, home butter making became less popular and advances in equipment for home butter making slowed. As a result, modern improvements in kitchen appliances have not been incorporated into home butter makers. Therefore, there remains a need for a butter maker that can be conveniently used in a contemporary home kitchen.
The present invention relates to a butter maker that can be used in the contemporary home kitchen. The butter maker of the invention is compact and will fit on a counter or other surface in a home kitchen. The butter maker includes a cream container, a drive housing, a drive, and a dasher. The drive housing houses a drive, which is coupled to the dasher and adapted and configured to drive the dasher in reciprocal motion. The drive housing and the cream container are adapted and configured to reversibly mate and to position the dasher in the cream container for reciprocal motion within the container. The dasher and the container have complementary shapes with the dasher dimension to fit within the container and to define a space that can be occupied by cream within the container and around the dasher. Reciprocal motion of the dasher within the container converts the cream to butter.